Goat’s cheese and herb stuffed chicken with risotto Milanese

Method

• step 1

  To make the risotto, melt ½ the butter in a pan then cook the onion until very soft but not coloured for 10 minutes. Add the rice and stir then add the wine. Let it evaporate then add the saffron. Pour in the stock, a ladleful or 2 at a time, stirring and scraping the rice from the bottom of the pan as you do so. When each addition of stock has almost evaporated, add the next ladleful.

• step 2

  This should take about 15-17 minutes. The risotto is ready when the grains are tender but still with a little bite. Beat in the remaining butter and some seasoning, then beat in the parmesan. If you want to make the risotto ahead, stop before it’s really tender then add the last couple of ladles of stock, the butter and parmesan just before serving.

• step 3

  To make the chicken, heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Pull off the false fillet from each breast if it is still attached. Put the main chicken breast on a board, skinned-side down. With a small knife, make a pocket in the chicken by cutting along the length and into the side of the breast. Be careful not to cut all the way through. Mash together the cheese, garlic and rosemary and season well. Divide between each pocket, spreading evenly. Bash out the false fillets (if you have them) a little then use them seal over the cuts in the fillets.

• step 4

  Lay 2 slices of prosciutto out flat, slightly overlapping, and put a sprig of rosemary in the middle. Put a fillet skinned-down on top of the rosemary and wrap it with the ham. Repeat with the remaining fillets. Oil a baking tray, put the chicken on it with the join underneath and cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes depending on size (use a metal skewer to check it’s piping hot in the middle). Cut each one in half at an angle, and serve with risotto, some wilted spinach and any cooking juices.